Chicago Adventures: Flight In | Virgin Hotel | Lincoln Park Zoo

Found an excellent deal on some tickets to Chicagofor the weekend so said let’s do this. Only downside was the whole media hype on “crime”, however turned out to be the opposite of the local Chicago scene.

Waiting views out of Memphis, TN.

So I used Hotel Tonight app to find us a hotel for the two nights, usually my deal is book flights way in advance and wait till last minute for hotels. Unless I know there’s a convention going down or something that will make the prices rise. Hotel Tonight is great at finding awesome deals, I found Richard Bransons Hotel Virgin for a decent price and said let’s do it. It’s also a top rated hotel in downtown Chicago.

Was a pretty cool hotel and the check in staff was delightful. The smell of the hotel is like a Westin with a dope smell to it, and the amenities were also epic.

Views from inside our room at Virgin Hotel

a very lady friendly hotel

modern storage space

The Next Day

So I spent all night checking YELP + Tripadvisor + Google etc etc looking for top places to go eat, see, hear. I found a top rated gluten free spot called “Wheats End”. What an awesome name and decided we had to check it out. We used Uber the entire time which was easily available and seemed someone was always on the corner waiting. Was about a 10 minute ride.

first get camera gear ready

What an awesome name for someone who’s allergic to gluten

We did have a total hipster liberal sitting next to us who was inquiring if the eggs were free range, and is the butter vegan, etc. The waitress wanting to stab him. But these types of places I’ve become use to finding this people.

gluten free everything, they had croissant rolls, omg. nom.

I forgot what I had but it was decent, could have been a lot better almost seemed store bought bread. I still love them since they offer us gf people a place to eat. Go WE.

However if your in Chicago and gluten free be sure to check out Wheats End, it’s not bad and was quite a cozy spot. The service was excellent, atmosphere was gluten free.

The Lincoln Park Zoo

After a grub sesh we took an uber to the Lincoln Park Zoo which is also a free zoo + indoor garden aka aboratorium. This is the third free zoo I’ve been too, Washington D.C. Zoo, Como Park Zoo in MN were the other two. I accidentally sized these pics down a little to small of resolution so I apologize for any shitty quality pics. This place also has multiple Mold-O-Rama machines if your into that 1950’s plastic mold making thing.

Welcome! Was a beautiful day as well, think the temp was 70 degrees.

Love the spaced out open style Zoos. Super cramped zoos suck and for the animals.

Overall I’d give the Lincoln Park Zoo a 4/5 stars. It’s a very well maintained/clean zoo, it’s also free and it’s inside a huge city like the Houston Zoo. But does it 1000 times better, the staff was out and about, all the animals were out and it smelt amazing. I’d go back.

Lincoln Park Conservatory

Another free place to explore! This was pretty cool, not nearly as dope as Minnesota’s but still none the less was well maintained and had some awesome plant species to check out.

Open Daily Son

Thought these were cool as shit.

They had real life dinosaurs roaming the grounds.

Spotted a T-Rex had to run away.

Flamingo’s probably eat this.

I call this one “off limits”

Had a lot of stuff shaped like balls.

This one is called “no dogs allowed”

wonderful sights.

ROTOFUGI

After the park I found Rotofugi. I’ve bought many things from Rotofugi which a store that sells vinyl toys, art, blind boxes, etc. I didn’t know they were located in Chicago! I was stoked and away we went.

Rotofugi Rotofugi Rotofugi

Forgot to snap the toys because was to busy staring at them.

Views outside Godess and the Baker (stupid restaurant that advertises as gluten free but staff has no fucking clue)

Had some hipster drinks that were pretty damn good.

very tasty sandwich with gluten free bread

chicago views walking back to our hotel

That concludes day 1 in Chicago, I was so impressed. Didn’t see anyone get killed either, realized from Uber drivers that’s all 30 minutes drive away kind of thing. Well if you missed last weeks blog check it out below.

About Me

Diagnosed at the age of 23 with Eosinophilic Esophagitis which swelled my throat up to the point that I couldn't swallow. Ended up in surgery to see what was wrong and found out I was choking on a piece of chicken. Few allergy tests later I found out that I'm super allergic to wheat/gluten and a variety of other foods. Go me!

This blog is my personal endeavors of discovering a new world of gluten-free, organic, healthy foods, and a glimpse of my traveling adventures.

I'm still new to the entire travel blog scene so if you want a part time job or to help out let me know, could also use an editor.